What tech is like in "Rest of World"
This week we chat with Sophie Schmidt, founder of an online publication called Rest of World, an international nonprofit journalism organization that seeks to document what happens when technology, culture and the human experience collide, with a focus on regions that are typically overlooked and underestimated. Our conversation shows how rapidly the global landscape is shifting, and how software is redefining work and life for a new generation of coders and consumers.
Sophie founded Rest of World in 2019 after a decade of living and working across Asia, Africa & the Middle East, and with companies like Uber and Xiaomi. She graduated from Stanford Graduate School of Business, Harvard Kennedy School and Princeton University. Sophie is based in New York. Read why she started this publication in her founder’s note. You can subscribe to Rest of World's newsletter here.
In this week's episode we talk about Okash, a peer-to-peer lending app that show what happens when you gamify public social shaming.
We explore honjok, a South Korean sub-culture that emphasizes a movement away from ambitious professionalism and towards a more stoic loner lifestyle. In some ways, the apps, services, and online communities that formed around this tribe perfectly predicted what many people are experiencing in 2020. "The accidental pioneers of a lifestyle that has been forced on all of us," as Sophie explains.
And finally, we explore what it takes to break into the world of digital finance in Indonesia, where a board of clerics must certify that your code halal - consistent with Islamic religion and law - before you can break into a market of more than 220 million potential customers.